Structure and Pacing

What You Will Learn

• Ask developmental questions about a whole draft
• Build a reverse outline of your piece
• Control pacing with scene and summary
• Cut, move, or expand sections to strengthen structure

Lesson Notes

Big-Picture Questions

Developmental editing asks the biggest questions first:

• What is this piece about, in one sentence? (Your focus question from CWP 221, or your key truth from CWP 222.)
• Does every section serve that focus?
• Is the turning point or main message clear, and does it get enough space?
• Does the order make sense to a reader who was not there?
• What is missing? What is repeated?

The Reverse Outline

A reverse outline is an outline you make after drafting. Number each paragraph. In the margin or on a separate sheet, write one short line for each: what happens, and what job the paragraph does (scene, summary, reflection, or teaching).

Now look at the list. You will quickly see paragraphs that repeat, sections that wander from the focus, and places where the most important moment gets only one line.

Pacing: Fast and Slow

Pacing is how fast time seems to move for the reader. Summary speeds up (That year passed slowly.). Scene slows down to show a moment as it happened. Good pacing slows down for the moments that matter and speeds through routine.

A common pacing problem is the reverse: three paragraphs about getting dressed, and one line for the phone call that changed everything. Slow down at your turning point. Give it senses, action, and words.

Cut, Move, Expand

Most structural revision comes down to three moves: cut what does not serve the focus, move sections into a clearer order, and expand the moments that deserve more room.

Cutting is the hardest. Keep a cuttings file: a folder or notebook where cut passages go. A good passage that does not fit this piece may become the seed of another. Pruned branches can be planted again.

Key Terms

In-Class Activities

Reverse Outline

Number the paragraphs of your chosen piece. On a separate sheet, write one line per paragraph: what happens and its job (scene, summary, reflection, teaching). Then mark: R beside any paragraph that repeats another, O beside any that wanders off your focus, and a star beside your most important moment. How many lines does your most important moment get?

Speed Up, Slow Down

This passage was written for this course. It moves slowly through routine and rushes the important moment. Rewrite it: summarize the routine in one sentence, then slow down the letter moment into a short scene.

I woke up at 6:15. I brushed my teeth and washed my face. I put on my gray sweatshirt and my blue jeans. I ate a bowl of cereal. Then I walked to the mailbox and there was a letter from my daughter and I read it and it said she forgave me and I cried. Then I went back inside and washed the bowl.

Assignment: Structural Revision

Using your reverse outline, make a structural revision of your piece on a working copy (not your BEFORE copy):

• Make at least one cut, one move, and one expansion.
• Place cut passages in your cuttings file.
• Write a short note (5–7 sentences) explaining each change and how it serves your focus.

Keep your reverse outline; it will go in your revision memo.

Graded with the Module Assignment Rubric.

Reflection Journal

First Corinthians 14:40 says, Let all things be done decently and in order. Where is God bringing order to your life in this season? What would you cut, move, or give more room to if your life were a draft?

Prayer focus: Ask God for wisdom to see the shape of your writing and your life, and for courage to make changes that bring order and peace.

Building in Order

A house needs walls in the right places before anyone chooses curtains. Writing is the same. Before you polish sentences, look at the shape of the whole piece: what it is about, what each section does, and whether the most important moment gets the room it deserves.

The reverse outline is a simple tool for this. Write one line for each paragraph after you have drafted. Patterns appear quickly: repeated ideas, wandering sections, and turning points squeezed into a single sentence.

Pacing is about time. Summary moves fast; scene moves slow. Many drafts spend pages on routine and rush the moment that matters. Slow down where your reader needs to stand still with you, and move quickly through the rest.

Cutting a good passage hurts. That is why writers keep a cuttings file. What does not fit this piece may become the seed of another. Nothing you wrote is wasted.

Think About It

1. What is your piece about, in one sentence? ______________________
2. Where does your most important moment need more room? ______________________
3. What passage are you afraid to cut? ______________________

Daily Devotions for Week 3

Counting the Cost

For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?— Luke 14:28 (KJV)

Wise builders look at the whole before they build. Wise writers look at the whole before they polish.

Reflect: What plan do you need to finish well?

Pray: Lord, give me wisdom to plan.

Do: Make a reverse outline of your piece.

A Season for Everything

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.— Ecclesiastes 3:1 (KJV)

Some moments in a story need a long season on the page, and some need only a line.

Reflect: Which moment in your story needs more time?

Pray: Lord, teach me to give each thing its season.

Do: Expand your most important moment by three sentences.

Ordered Steps

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.— Psalm 37:23 (KJV)

God orders our steps. Ordering the steps of a story helps a reader follow.

Reflect: Where do you need God to order your steps?

Pray: Lord, order my steps.

Do: Move one section of your piece to a clearer place.

Take Heed How You Build

According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.— 1 Corinthians 3:10 (KJV)

Paul built carefully because the work mattered. Our work matters too.

Reflect: What foundation is your piece built on?

Pray: Lord, help me build with care.

Do: Write your piece's focus in one sentence at the top of the page.

Wait for It

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.— Habakkuk 2:3 (KJV)

Some revisions take time to see clearly. God's timing is not late.

Reflect: What are you waiting on God for?

Pray: Lord, give me patience to wait for Your timing.

Do: Set your draft aside for a day before your next revision.